Cultural and Language Differences: Conflict Between Ethnic Chinese and Native Javanese in Surakarta 1972-1998
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The city of Surakarta is approximately 65 km northeast of Yogyakarta and 100 km southeast of Semarang. This region was previously formed by the Dutch Governor General's government which was based in Batavia and still had the form of a Residency. Administratively, the Surakarta City area borders a number of districts in Central Java. Surakarta is one of the centers of Javanese culture because in this city there are two palaces left by the Islamic Mataram Kingdom, namely Kasunan and Pura Mangkunegaran. In the past, these two palaces were also centers for the development of Javanese culture which became role models for their residents. Surakarta is a fairly old residential area.
This anti-Chinese incident in Surakarta had a trigger factor for small-scale riots which is a unique characteristic capable of causing very serious chaos that claimed many victims and caused damage and other problems that spread outside the city of Surakarta. There are three factors that cause this incident to occur:
1) Provocation to create mass mobility.
Mass mobility was the cause of the escalation of the riots in 1980 in Surakarta. In this incident mass mobilization began to form due to provocation by Pipiet because he did not accept the attack that befell him, then Pipiet succeeded in gathering together his school friends.
2) Individual Conflict
The 1972 conflict in Surakarta was a trivial matter that started with a disagreement between an Arab encik and a rickshaw driver. The problem is a lack of understanding regarding payment for services. Finally there was a war of words and mutual beatings which ended in the death of the pedicab driver.
3) Student Action
The events of May 14 1998 began with student demonstrations which took place in two places, namely at Muhammadiyah University of Surakarta (UMS) in Pabelan and Sebelas Maret University (UNS) in Kentingan, Surakarta. These two actions gave rise to mass violence which started on the UMS campus. The peaceful demonstration and action demanding reform held by students suddenly turned into a major clash, coupled with the involvement of the local community who were easily provoked, this action was the beginning of the riots in May 1998.
The impacts resulting from the riots that occurred in Surakarta included:
